Jan 26 How Do You Spot a Black Hole? Look for Its ‘Burp’ EmbedVideo(2541, 482, 304); Last week, a team of astronomers met in Arizona to discuss ambitious plans to see the unseeable. Using data pulled from more than 75 ground-based telescopes and assembled by a supercomputer, their plan is… Continue reading
Jan 12 Giant Galaxy Cluster, Blue Stars and Cosmic Explosions Scientists have found the biggest distant galaxy cluster ever seen, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile. Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Hughes et al, Optical: ESO/VLT/Pontificia Universidad. Catolica de Chile/L.Infante & SOAR (MSU/NOAO/UNC/CNPq-Brazil)/Rutgers/F.Menanteau, IR: NASA/JPL/Rutgers/F.Menanteau. Continue reading
Jan 05 Honey, I Blew Up the Ants Workers, soldiers and supersoldiers mingle in this ant colony. Photo by Alex Wild at alexanderwild.com. Updated: 6:30 p.m. ET | In 2006, while collecting ants on an abandoned property in central Long Island, biologist Ehab Abouheif of… Continue reading
Dec 22 The Science of Snowflakes, and Why No Two Are Alike Peer through a magnifying glass at a snowflake, and you'll see an ice creation more elaborate than anything Martha Stewart could cut from folded paper. So what's behind the snowflake's unique and elaborate shape? The snowflakes that settle… Continue reading
Dec 15 Spacecraft Snaps Giant Asteroid Vesta Up Close In mid-July, NASA's Dawn spacecraft swung into a yearlong orbit around Vesta, the second-most massive object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Since then, it has been snapping pictures of the protoplanet's rugged surface and beaming them… Continue reading
Dec 08 The Art of the Science Tattoo EmbedVideo(2142, 482, 304); It all started with a summer pool party and a Harvard neuroscientist who prefers to be called Bob. Bob -- aka Dr. Sandeep Robert Datta -- was splashing around the pool with… Continue reading
Dec 01 Behind the Backscatter: The Health, Security Implications of Body Scanners EmbedVideo(2089, 482, 304); On Thursday's NewsHour broadcast, Miles O'Brien reports on the safety of the latest backscatter body-scanning machines that are widely used in American airport security. Hari Sreenivasan caught up with Miles this week… Continue reading
Nov 26 Curiosity Rover Begins 300 Million-Mile Journey to Mars EmbedVideo(2061, 482, 304); Update November 26| The Mars Science Laboratory launched into space at 10 am on Saturday, beginning its nine-month, 354-million-mile journey to Mars. Upon arrival, the one-ton spacecraft will hurl through the Mars atmosphere and deploy… Continue reading
Nov 17 Drooling Electrons, Thermodynamics and Beta Decay … in Verse By Jenny Marder // In Mala Radhakrishnan's world, where oxygen and palladium atoms clamor to get into the most sought-after beaker and tortured carbon atoms become boron swans, chemistry is rife with mystery, jealousy and, yes, romance. Radhakrishnan, assistant professor at Wellesley College,… Continue reading
Nov 15 Occupy Demonstrations Under Pressure Around the Nation Rev. Ann Kantsfield faces off with NYPD at the Canal Street site. (Arun Venugopal/WNYC) What began as the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York nearly two months ago has now spread to cities across the United States. Here… Continue reading